Reviews

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz

atlasofclouds's review against another edition

emotional inspiring sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

yusrara's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective relaxing sad tense slow-paced

5.0

salshrem_nardea's review against another edition

3.0

I have to start out saying that I had to read this book for school, which always makes a difference with the approach to the book.
Now that that's out of the way, the actual book was OK, not great, not bad, just OK.
It was confusing at times and there are a lot of characters to follow. The way it is written is very odd but arguably adds a different dimension to the book. I enjoyed Junot Diaz's writing style as it made the book less boring. But after all was said and done, it was nothing great.
Also, I don't particularly like the footnotes and explanations of Dominican Republic's history. I wish he just smoothly added it into the story.

blueberryshake's review against another edition

2.0

I would enjoy this book is a lot more if I spoke a word of Spanish or was a LoTR fan, the book is filled with references to the Lotr series that I did not connect with. The characters were memorable and inspiring (especially Oscar's female family members whose stories were interconnected and they were all followed by the "Fuku"curse). The book is filled with political references which turned out to be particularly interesting, also made me realise how little I know about Dominican history. I recommend not reading it all in one go, like I did... the non linear timeline and trying to translate the spanish-english hybrid words gave me a headache.

goodmorningcaptain's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

doctabird's review against another edition

2.0

I'm still processing how I feel about this book.

moonsxx20's review

dark emotional funny informative reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

w0rmonastring's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

topbob's review against another edition

4.0

Great stuff, I think the most compelling aspect (and the most limiting part) was that it read like a short story collection with a similar cast of characters. Nonetheless, the book is remarkably solid throughout. Characters are endearing, story is captivating, interesting themes, and the book has some sharp humor to it. Yet, I feel like no aspect stood out in order to bring the novel to masterpiece status.

brettpet's review against another edition

4.0

The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao has been on my to-read list for years after the cover caught my eye at a bookstore, and I would say it mostly delivered. Like many other reviewers (and the obvious Pulitzer Prize) point out, Junot Diaz has an incredibly unique sense of prose. Some readers may find the half-page footnotes, swearing, and constant fantasy/sci-fi metaphors off-putting, but it all tied the reading experience together for me. I had virtually no knowledge of Dominican history before reading Wao, and having Junot break down the lasting legacy of the Trujillo regime into digestible terms made the experience much more enjoyable.

The shifting narration and timeline didn't bother me much, and made for my favorite chapter—Beli's school years and love affair with the Gangster. I do think characters are introduced and then abandoned a little too quickly in some places, such as the buildup with Oscar's love interest in college and most of the characters in Abelard's chapter (but I guess that's the nature of the human experience: you never know when someone is going to enter your life or be taken from you). I also think Lola was a little undercharacterized for how big of an impact she has in the story, but I suppose

Spoiler

Yunior's

narration is the reasoning for that.

It sounds selfish but I think this book ends up at a 7/10 rather than an 8 for me is because of the ending. It's simultaneously finalizing and anti-climactic. The title of the book obviously indicates the story's inherent tragedy, but I wanted more development out of Oscar. We get a bit through his

Spoiler

relationship with and sacrifice for Ybon

, but it feels finite given his main character status. Maybe there's an argument to be made that

Spoiler

Yunior

or Beli are the real main character, but it just let me down. I'm interested to read more of the Pulitzer prize nominees that this book competed with to see how warranted the win was—but this is still one of the most unique stories I've read in a while.